Build along with halfeye and I (finished - full draw added)

[Sidmand]

Sidmand, Your progress looks good so far, You may want to tuck that advice away for future use and either glue up while everything is still the same width and then cut to shape, or try align backing and belly with a exact width match....but in no case have the thin backing wider than the belly. While cupping is a real issue I do not believe you will have a cupping problem on this bow because of the way you went about it.
      The fact that you are using only the limited hand tools can make things a bit problematic, but like I said I believe your fine on the glue up.....time will tell sir.

I'm curious to know if you done any preliminary bending to get a sense of the available power? I think you are going to be pleasantly suprised.
rich
       

yeah, the hand tools make things take a bit longer, but I don't mind the work, it's kind of relaxing to me.  And, they are a ton cheaper than buying a bunch of power tools.

As to power, just in testing the limbs on the floor a bit, its stout to say the least  .  As in, it's hardly bending at all at the moment.  Going to take a lot of thickness taper to get it working I think, but I suspect, based on the other one I did (that I over tillered), that it will start moving good when I do the initial taper per our plan.

[Sidmand]

Great read.  Thanks for taking the considerable time/effort to document your build!

Question ... what's purpose of the plastic wrap?

it helped on this build to keep everything together, once it was wrapped up it didn't move at all.

[Sidmand]

I spoke to Rich on the phone to discuss tillering, which is the toughest part of this whole bow making thing for me.  We discussed several ways of going about getting the bow to floor tiller and beyond, and he patiently explained to me the process of "faceted" tillering.  I was actually doing some of the whole faceting process anyway because I only have hand tools, but once Rich explained the process to me it made a lot of sense, so I followed his directions.  But first, I wanted to get a better way together for me to start measuring thickness on my limbs, so I created a thickness gauge using an Altoids tin.  I cut out the metal with some scissors, bent it out to be 3/8 deep, and used that to mark my thickness taper lines on my wood.







I marked my 3/8 inch line starting at 5 inches out from center - which gave me full thickness for the middle 10 inches of the bow and then 3/8 inch for the remainder of it.  I went with this thinking that with around 1/8 inch of boo, I'd end up with 1/2" limbs bending a bit for floor tiller, and I'd go from there to the long string and then to brace.  I was shooting for mid 40 pounds at 27 inches.

[Sidmand]

Then, I started in on faceting the limbs.  I used my drawknife to carefully get as close to the center line of the limb and the 3/8 inch line on the limb side as I could. 



Then I took out my 40 grit "belt sander" (another Rich suggestion that worked real well), and flattened it all out good. 



Did the same to the other side of the limb. 



Then, took the drawknife out again, and knocked the ridge down in the middle/center of the limb, and sanded it down smooth, which gave me a little bit of a crown/oval shape in the belly.



Then, I did the same to the other limb.  This gave me a bit of bend in the limbs, which i worked a bit further to get about 3 or 4 inches of movement at the floor tiller stage.



after that, I cut some pin nocks in and had to quit for the day.  Next installment will be final tiller.

[Sidmand]

I missed my weight at 60", cause I got in a hurry and removed to much wood.  This is a problem I have, totally unrelated to Rich's direction, especially since he offered to help every step of the way and I just didn't take the time to call like I should have.  I just don't always have a lot of time, usually a couple hours during nap on the weekends is all I get.  But, I digress, here she is, I piked the bow down to 54" total length to get some weight back, and stopped when I got it to what you see below, 42# at 27".  After shooting it it still keeps about an inch of reflex, good times

 

[Sidmand]

and here it is all finished up.  Tips and handle are wrapped with jute saturated with Titebond 2.  I built the handle up with cork cause I just haven't gotten used to the squareness and narrowness of no handle.  The bow got two coats of minwax walnut stain, then 4 coats of Danish oil, then a nice thick coat of beeswax all over.  String is B50, and the silencers are just brown yarn.  It shoots GREAT, I like it a lot, and it will probably be my next hunting bow this year.

[Sidmand]

And here is my full draw:

[Sidmand]

A lot of thanks goes out to Rich, he helped me a lot during this process and I learned a lot.  Although there may be a mistake here or there, I can say with complete honesty that those mistakes were mine due to poor execution of Rich's explanations.  Either way, I am very very pleased with the bow and Rich was a gentleman and a scholar, thanks again sir!

[half eye]

Thats a whole lot of bend ya got going on there. From my experience it looks like it should have good power and speed. For your second bow that is very very nice. Hadn't heard from in so long I was gettin worried there bud obviously unwarranted worry 

I like it and hope that you do to.
rich

[paco664]

i like it... very nice...

[Sidmand]

Thats a whole lot of bend ya got going on there. From my experience it looks like it should have good power and speed. For your second bow that is very very nice. Hadn't heard from in so long I was gettin worried there bud obviously unwarranted worry 

I like it and hope that you do to.
rich

Not quite second bow, I have a few others, but for sure this is my second successful bow (in my definition of successful).  The others I have built have all either broken or are dogs in regards to performance due to poor tillering due to me hurrying.  And sorry about the contact last week, had kids puking all over the house and an uncommon (for Alabama) winter storm to contend with.  All that being said, I really like this bow a lot, thanks again for your help Rich!

[tattoo dave]

Good looking bow. Nice work. I missed my target weight on my first few bows too. Took me a while to convince myself to just slow down, and enjoy the process.

Tattoo Dave